'The O.C. Flasher' Sentenced in Santa Ana
The Orange County Register
January 8, 2010
by Larry Welborn
Original Article
Christopher Holden Fenn exits Orange County Superior Court in Santa Ana after a pretrial hearing on charges of indecent exposure, child annoyance and aggravated assault, March 17, 2008.
SANTA ANA - A Mission Viejo man who police believe was "The O.C. Flasher" who exposed himself to dozens of people – mostly women - over a three-year span was sentenced to 10 years in prison today.
Christopher Holden Fenn, 46, pleaded guilty in September to 27 counts of indecent exposure.
Superior Court Judge James A. Stotler handed down the 10-year term after he heard from one of the victims, who said she has been irritable, nervous and fearful since Fenn exposed himself to her in 2006.
She said she now constantly looks over her shoulder when she is out in public and "I always have the feeling of danger close to me and my children."
Deputy District Attorney Robert Mestman said Fenn is the man who exposed himself to women near hiking trails and parking complexes and wore only a towel or shirt wrapped around his head.
Fenn, an insurance underwriter and father of three, was arrested in February 2008 when Michael Palacio, 39, of Tustin, said he saw him naked and peering into a window of a woman's Tustin apartment.
Palacio chased Fenn, cornered him in a grocery store parking lot and held him for police.
Fenn said: "Please let me go. I have a wife and kids," Palacio told an Orange County Register reporter.
Fenn also pleaded guilty to a felony assault charge for throwing a brick at Palacio.
Authorities said later they think Fenn may have exposed himself to as many as 91 people in Aliso Viejo, Dana Point, Irvine, Laguna Hills, Laguna Niguel, Mission Viejo, Tustin and Rancho Santa Margarita.
Fenn, who was convicted of three counts of indecent exposure in 1981, gave a brief nod to his wife in the courtroom gallery before he was handcuffed and escorted from the courtroom.
Defense Attorney Joseph H. Low said Fenn is "enormously regretful" over the hurt and pain he has caused his family.